Not my cup of tea ( )

All of these short stories are focused on the machismo culture, each shows us a different aspect of how the importance of appearances affects the lives of people. Though each story in itself was ok, I would have preferred to read one story with more depth of characterization.
From a writing perspective, these stories date from the early days of Mario Vargas Llosa's career as a writer and show him experimenting with different styles of storytelling. The version I read has an introduction by the writer.
( )

The six non-title stories in this collection were written when Vargas Llosa was a student between 1953 and 1957 (when he was 17 to 21 years old), which shows a little at times, but overall it’s pretty impressive, given how lean and focused they are, reminiscent of Hemingway. “The Cubs” was written in Paris in 1965 when he was 29, and is different stylistically, with elements of beat authors, such as embedded dialog in the text. It’s interesting to me that in the forward, he says he wanted the story to be “more sung than told”, and wanted the reader to have “the impression of listening, not reading”.

The stories are all about growing up as a young man in Peru in the 50’s. Some examples to give you a flavor: “The Leaders” tells of students who try to organize a strike against their school, only to have difficulty getting everyone to fall in line and vying for control between themselves. “On Sunday” is about a couple of friends who are attracted for the same girl and try to get the better of each other in a beer drinking contest, followed by foolishly swimming in the ocean in the winter. “The Challenge” is about a knife fight on a beach at night. “The Younger Brother” is about a couple of brothers who travel into the mountains to get revenge against an Indian’s offense against their sister. And lastly, “The Cubs” follows a group of friends as they grow up, with one of them going through psychological and social problems after having been emasculated by a vicious dog.

The book is worth reading, particularly if you’re a Vargas Llosa fan. It shows the flashes of his greatness and it moves along briskly, so you’re not stuck in the occasional places where it’s less successful for very long. If you want more substantial ‘early’ Vargas Llosa, though, I’d recommend his first novel, “The Time of the Hero” instead. ( )

Seven short stories of Peruvian life and machista culture, six of which were written while the author was still a student. My favourites were "The Challenge", "On Sunday" and "The Cubs". The title story is written in a very interesting style, with the story being narrated by all the residents of the barrio 'dissolving into individual voices and coming together again in one that gives expression to the entire group'. ( )

3.5 stars ( )